Persephone's Pre-Patriarchal Myth

 

Charlene Spretnak’s research in Lost Goddesses of Early Greece led her to develop the following story based on evidence left over from archaeological and historical evidence.

Demeter’s Pre-Patriarchal Myth

There once was no winter. Leaves and vines, flowers and grass grew into fullness and into decay , then began again in unceasing rhythms.

Men joined with other men of their mother’s clan and foraged in the evergreen woods for game. Women with their children or grandchildren toddling behind explored the thick growth of plants encircling their homes. They learned eventually which bore fruits that sated hunger, which bore leaves and roots that chased illness and pain, and which worked magic on the eye, mouth, and head. 

The Goddess Demeter watched fondly as the mortals learned more and more about Her plants. Seeing that their lives were difficult and their food supply sporadic, She was moved to give them the gift of wheat. She showed them how to plant the seed, cultivate, and finally harvest the wheat and grind it. Always the mortals entrusted the essential process of planting good to the women, in the hope that their fecundity of womb might be transferred to the fields they touched. 

Demeter had a fair-born daughter, Persephone, who watched over the crops with her mother. Persephone was drawn especially to the new sprouts of wheat that had pushed their way through the soil in her favorite shade of tender green. She loved to walk among the young plants, beckoning them upward and stroking the weaker shoots. 

Later, when the plants approached maturity, Persephone would leave their care to her mother Demeter and wander over the hills, gathering narcissus, hyacinth, and garlands of myrtle for her mother’s hair. Persephone herself favored the bold red poppies that sprang up among the wheat. It was not unusual to see Demeter and Persephone decked with flowers dancing together through open fields and gently sloping valleys. When Demeter felt especially fine, tiny shoots of barley or oats would spring up in the foothills she left.

One day they were sitting on the slope of a high hill looking out in many directions over Demeter’s fields of grain. Persephone lay on her back while Her mother stroked her long hair idly. 

“Mother, sometimes in my wanderings I have met the spirits of the dead hovering around their earthly homes and sometimes the mortals too, can see them in the dark of the moon by the light of their fires and torches,” said Persephone. “They are those spirits who drift about restlessly, but they mean no harm,” replies Demeter.

“I spoke to them Mother. They seem confused and many do not even understand their own state. Is there no one in the netherworld who receives the newly dead?”

Demeter sighed and answered softly, “It is I who has domain over the underworld. From beneath the surface of the earth I draw forth the crops and the wild plants. And in pits beneath the surface of the earth I have instructed the mortals to store My seed from harvest until sowing, in order that contact with the spirits of My underworld will fertilize the seed. Yes, I know very well the realm of the dead, but My most important work is here. I must feed the living.” 

Persephone rolled over and thought about the ghostly spirits she had seen, about their faces drawn with pain and bewilderment.

“The dead need us Mother. I will go to them,” she says.

Demeter abruptly sat upright as a chill passed through Her and rustled the grass around them. She was speechless for a moment, but then hurriedly began recounting all the pleasures they enjoyed in their world of sunshine, warmth, and fragrant flowers. She told Her daughter of the dark gloom of the underworld and begged Her to reconsider. 

Persephone sat and hugged her Mother and rocked Her with silent tears. For a long while they held each other, radiating rainbow auras of love and protection. Yet Persephone’s response was unchanged.

They stood and walked in silence down the slope towards the fields. Finally they stopped, surrounded by Demeter’s grain, and shared weary smiles. 

“Very well. You are loving and giving and we cannot give only to ourselves. I understand why you must go. Still, you are my daughter and for everyday that you remain in the underworld, I will mourn your absence.”

Persephone gathered three poppies and three sheaves of wheat. Then Demeter led her to a long, deep chasm and produced a torch for her to carry. She stood and watched her daughter go down further and further into the cleft in the earth.

In the crook of her arm Persephone held her mother’s grain close to her breast, while her other arm held the torch aloft. She was startled at the chill as she descended, but she was not afraid. Deeper and deeper into the darkness she continued, picking her way slowly along the rocky path. For many hours she was surrounded only by silence. Gradually she became aware of a low moaning sound. It grew in intensity until she rounded a corner and entered an enormous cavern, where thousands of spirits of the dead milled about aimlessly, hugging themselves, shaking their heads, and moaning in despair. 

Persephone moved through the forms to a large, flat rock and ascended. She produced a stand for her torch, a vase for Demeter’s grain, and a large shallow bowl piled with pomegranate seeds, the food of the dead. As she stood before them, her aura increased in brightness and in warmth. 

“I am Persephone and I have come to be your Queen. Each of you has left your earthly body and now resides in the realm of the dead. If you come to me I will initiate you into your new world.”

She beckoned those nearest to step up onto the rock and enter her aura. As each spirit crossed before her, Persephone embraced the form and then stepped back and gazed into the eyes. She reached for a few of the pomegranate seeds, squeezing them between her fingers. She painted the forehead with a broad swatch of the red juice and slowly pronounced, “You have waxed into the fullness of life and waned into darkness; may you be renewed in tranquility and wisdom.”

For months Persephone received and renewed the dead without ever resting or even growing weary. All the while her Mother remained disconsolate. Demeter roamed the earth hoping to find her daughter emerging from one of the secret clefts. In her sorrow she withdrew her power from the crops, the trees, the plants. She forbade any new growth to blanket the earth. The mortals planted their seed, but the fields remained barren. Demeter was consumed with loneliness and finally settled on a bare hillside to gaze out at nothing from sunken eyes. For days and nights, weeks and months she sat waiting.

One morning a ring of purple crocus quietly pushed it’s way through the soil and surrounded Demeter. She looked at surprised at the new arrivals from below and thought what a shame it was that she was too weakened to feel rage at her injunction being broken. Then she leaned forward and heard them whisper in the warm breeze, “Persephone returns! Persephone returns!”

Demeter leapt to her feet and ran down the hill through the  fields into the forests. She waved her arms and cried “Persephone returns!” Everywhere her energy was stirring, pushing, bursting forth into the tender greenery and pale young petals. Animals shed old fur and rolled in the fresh, clean grass while birds sang out “Persephone returns! Persephone returns!”

When Persephone ascended from a dark chasm, there was Demeter with a white crocus for her daughter. They ran to each other and hugged and cried and laughed and hugged and danced. The mortals saw everywhere the miracles of Demeter’s bliss and rejoiced in the new life of spring. Each winter they join Demeter in waiting through the bleak season of her daughter’s absence. Each spring they are renewed by the sign of Persephone’s return.

To learn more about Demeter and Persephone through their evolution and in astrology, click to receive the full ebook on the Asteroid Goddesses here.